GREENS~LEAVES
The newsletter of the Dunedin Veggie Growers Club; issued monthly. Vol: 4.4 April 2011
Meetings are held on the second Monday each month at St Patrick’s Parish Centre, MacAndrew Rd, Sth. Dunedin starting at 7.00pm sharp (we ask you to arrive at 6.45pm to avoid a bottleneck )
Our next meeting is Monday 11th April.
The Invited Speaker will be Mark Jackson on “The Global Food Crisis”
President: Margaret Scott (455 1940) msscott@xtra.co.nz Treasurer: Lynne McCrone (4781195)
Secretary: Carol Henderson (454 4625) hendersonic@xtra.co.nz
April’s Full!
....Of jobs to be done in the garden!! All of a sudden everything seems to need picking, pickling or preserving with spent plants needing pulled out and put on the compost heap. Not to mention the empty spaces which, in my garden, have started to fill up with weeds...... That said though , autumn is my favourite time of year and I have spent an enjoyable weekend doing all of these things whilst appreciating the fine weather and I hope all of you have had the chance to do the same :)
March Meeting
Annual General Meetings can be sparsely attended in some clubs so thankyou to all who came to, and hopefuly enjoyed, Barrie’s last meeting as President. The AGM itself took very little time and it was lovely to have the chance to thank Barrie for starting the club and all his hard work in getting us where we are today. He and Sharron our very first Life Members!
Ruth Groffman gave an excellent talk on peas and our invited speaker, Mark Dickson, gave us an interesting insight into what it takes to supply organically grown produce all year round as well as a brief history of Taste Nature and his property out at Waitati. We are grateful that local people are prepared to come and talk to us about what they are doing and I am sure that none of our members would like the speaker to regret having done so due to the nature of some of the questions and comments made at question time.
The Open Forum is a great place to air a gardening problem or question and thanks to Neil Robinson for hosting it so efficiently :)
Last, but not least, the new double-headed competition system saw Lynne McCrone winning both the Speaker vote and the Club vote for her 6 pods of peas, entitling her to two gifts from the basket!!
Seed sharing/ swapping, trading sales table
It is great to see extra produce and seedlings on the sales table and I know it is difficult to price everything so, unless priced, a suitable gold coin donation is all we expect for the club. If you are selling for yourself it would be a good idea to stay with your produce and collect the money to save confusion.
April 11th Meeting
Membership subs will be accepted at the door for those not already paid up for the year. Only paid up members will receive the newsletter after this month.
Any member who has changed address/e-mail please let Heather know for the distribution of the newsletter.
Veg. of the month –Carrots by Bart Acres
Competition – 3 carrots
Brains Trust/Open Forum will be chaired by Neil Robinson ( 10 mins )
Invited Speaker is Mark Jackson on “The Global Food Crisis”
Competition Judging –Speaker and Club member votes
Announcements and Supper
Garden visit - Lynne McCrone , 40 Camp St , on Saturday 16th April at 1.30pm. Lynne says it is easier to go to Broad Bay and turn around so that you can turn left into Camp St. She needs some jars for fundraising jam and would be grateful if anyone could bring some to the meeting for her.
May 9th Meeting
Veg. of the month – Jerusalem Artichokes
Competition – Silverbeet in any container!
Invited Speaker – TBA
What to plant in April
Broad beans (seeds), Kale , Lettuce, Miners lettuce (seeds) and Silverbeet are still able to be planted now although Peas, Cabbage and Cauliflower may well stand over winter to produce well in Spring if grown in the right spot! I grew my best cauliflowers ever this way planting them after potatoes with a seaweed mulch so I might try that again this year since I have just harvested all the potatoes. Brassicas like some lime (dolomite is best) and really appreciate a side dressing of blood and bone. I like to cover the blood and bone with seaweed or compost as cats and dogs like to eat it! Apparently carrots follow potatoes in a regular crop rotation but I am too late for that ;)
Admiring the Asparagus!
Bruce Bernasconi’s open garden
As you can see in the photos, Bruce has a very steep section looking out over St Clair and St Kilda beaches but he has landscaped it extensively with the help of Wwoofers. His vegetable plot is the one flat section selected for maximum sun and you can see us appraising his strawberry and asparagus beds in the photo just before we were treated to some of his delicious grapes from the glasshouse.
Around 20 of us were shown around the house (including the movie room!) and garden on one of those perfect sunny days. Thanks Bruce!
View from the deck
Internet Interest
The OrganicNZ magazine has an interesting website ; http://www.organicnz.org/
And the American version has a lot of “How To’”segments here;
http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/edibles/vegetables
Kings Seeds has a blog now !;
http://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/Our+Blog.html
with some interesting articles.
And of course our very own Dunedin focused Otepoti Urban Organics website
www.urbanorganics.org.nz also has a Facebook page J
Finally www.wwoof.co.nz is where you can find out about wwoofing!!
If any of you have a favourite website you would like to share please let me know and I can add it into the next newsletter. Small articles on what you have been doing in the garden would also be appreciated since you don’t really want to hear about my garden all the time!
Moon Planting Dates;
Planting and sowing can be done from the 7th until 14th April with the 21st and 22nd being the best time to sow root crops. I think it may be a bit late for root crops outside down here but the greenhouse is a great season extender and you may well be able to sneak some in even if it is only a few radishes! The 29th and 30th are not only good for root crops but also bulbs according to the New Zealand gardener magazine.
Midwinter Potluck Dinner
Depending on the availability of the hall this is to be held on either the 18th or 25th of June so get your recipe books out! We are planning on having an interesting speaker and perhaps even a themed midwinter quiz J
Competition Pea varieties
It would be great if everyone could write the variety they have grown to enter on the envelope for the future competition voting.
The varieties for March were;
Heather = Wando, Margaret = a Snow Pea and Lynne = Greenfeast ( good flavour!)
Greenfeast was the winner!
Happy Gardening :)
Carol Henderson,
Not-so-temporary Newsletter Editor!
